In the 19th mystery in this popular alphabetical series, private detective Kinsey Milhone attempts to discover the truth behind the disappearance of Violet Sullivan, who apparently abandoned her abusive husband and her little daughter, Daisy, 34 years ago. The now grown-up Daisy needs to know whether her mother really ran off or met a more sinister fate.

Mickey Sabbath, an aging, misanthropic puppeteer, embarks on a journey into his checkered past when his long-time mistress dies. His journey turns into succession of disasters. And while Sabbath wants to die, he still has too much life in him to succumb.

Mickey Sabbath, an aging, misanthropic puppeteer, embarks on a journey into his checkered past when his long-time mistress dies. His journey turns into succession of disasters. And while Sabbath wants to die, he still has too much life in him to succumb.

Barth's metafictional novel is about two writers who are writing the book we are reading. A married couple, Fenn Turner (ex-CIA) and Susan Seckler (an English professor), embark in their 33-foot sailboat on an idyllic one-year cruise to Yucatan and the West Indies, and the novel consists of a record of their journey and of their differing agendas: she wants to get pregnant, he's still undecided about what to do with his post-CIA life.

Beyond the facade of capitalism, moral relativism, political bravado, and even spiritual materialism, Housden manages to find a spiritual treasure-trove in the vast American spaces. In anecdotal fashion, Housden talks about the inspiring people he has encountered across the United States.

It's 1953, Anthony Amedeo's uncle Malcolm is sent to prison, and Aunt Floria and her twin daughters have come to live with Anthony and his family. Soon after, Anthony watches helplessly as one of the twins falls out the window of their Bronx apartment and is killed--an event that becomes a watershed in the life of this Italian-American family. As Anthony grows up, he lives his life in the shadow of his family's belief that he pushed his cousin to her death.

Dirk Pitt searches for a 2500-year-old pharaoh, investigates a biological disaster that threatens the world's oxygen supply, rescues a gorgeous international diplomat from imminent assassination, uncovers a nuclear waste spill that turns thousands of tribal Africans into crazed cannibals, solves the disappearance of an aviator over the Sahara in the 1930s, and reveals the great unknown secret behind the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. It's all in day's work for the unstoppable adventurer. SAHARA inspired a 2005 film of the same title starring Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz.

This selected volume presents 20 new poems and draws on four of Collins previous books, THE APPLE THAT ASTONISHED PARIS; QUESTIONS ABOUT ANGELS; THE BEST CIGARETTE; and PICNIC, LIGHTNING. Collins was named the 2001-2002 United States Poet Laureate. This collection was named a Notable Book by the New York Times in 2001.

A fictional retelling of the life of humanitarian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed at Buchenwald toward the end of World War II for his participation in a daring plot to assassinate Hitler. Winner of the Boston Book Review's 1999 Fisk Fiction Prize, judged by Ann Beattie.

A 41-year-old woman returns to her hometown of Spokane, Washington after an absence of 23 years. She is pregnant and determined to understand, before her child is born, how and why her family fell apart. The homecoming is filled with reunions and revelations.